Assignment #1: PSA Workshop
This assignment is about brainstorming ideas in a team, resulting in a solid concept with creative solutions.Working in a team, choose an issue which you would like to make a PSA about. Using the guidelines below, respond through research, writing and story boarding to conceptualize a :60 PSA.These guidelines are drawn from the Ad Council PSA kit and other sources. You may do research about PSA's in addition.

A good PSA campaign focuses on service to the public. Make sure your campaign idea deals with a significant public problem for which a solution can be offered through advertising. Do not develop a campaign which arouses public concern but offers no solution.

Media messages are fleeting. One compelling central message, clearly presented with a simple call for action, is the most effective.

Good PSA campaigns are based on research. In a real campaign, it may be delivered over the period of three years in order to measure attitude or behavior change. Research allows for measurable results. For instance, the United Negro College Fund's "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" campaign graduated more than 300,000 minority students and raised almost $2 billion. Measurable results can be calls to a hotline, changes of attitude measured through surveys, etc.

Make sure your PSA can answer the following questions:

1. Target Audience: Whom do I want to speak to? Are there any minorities addressed? Are there any barriers to understanding the message?

2. Message: What is the proposed message? What do I want the person who is watching this to understand?

3. Action Step: What is the call to action? What do I want the person to do? What can an individual do in the home or community? How will the action solve the problem?

4. Significance of Issue to the Public: What is the proposed issue? Describe the problem and why it is important to the public? Are there any statistics involved which might be useful?

Required components of the project:

1.Turn in a written description of the PSA, answering the questions 1-4 above, plus any other information and research about the issue, population, or the organization the PSA addresses or serves. You may also describe what the PSA will look like, and can make references to the look of other media.

2. Create a shotlist and story board which you can turn in. A shotlist simply lists the shots you think you want for the PSA-locations, actions, objects, scenes, interiors, etc. A storyboard is a visualization in drawing of the different shots (shot sketches) in the order they will appear in the finished work, and includes compositional information (close up, pan, wide shot, etc.), as well as audio (where the narration comes in, or if there is music over the shot). Your drawings can be very simple-stick figures even.

3. If there is a narration, try to write one and time it out by reading it aloud with a stopwatch. PSA's are :30 or :60 in length. Turn in this writing with story board.

4. You can also use "rip-o-matics" to convey information. These are bits and pieces of images ripped off or out of magazines which can be used to convey information about lighting, mise-en-scene, composition, wardrobe, etc. You can use these in place of a drawn story board or in addition to one. In a traditional "rip-o-matic", you shoot these images with a camera on a tripod or animation stand and edit them together to give the client a sense of what the piece might look like before you shoot.

5. You are not required to try to shoot and edit the PSA unless you want to. The purpose of this assignment is to give you freedom and focus to concentrate on the idea, and less on the technical production. If you feel you want to bring the idea into a moving image format, you may shoot a video sketch, create a video "rip-o-matic" or animatic (shooting your story board to bring it to life), or record a narration and music to go with a series of still photographic images. However, this is not required.